Three things to know about the Respect for Communities Act

Parliamentarians spent much of their first day back on the Hill debating the Harper government’s latest tough-on-drugs bill. The second reading of Bill C-2, formally known as the Respect for Communities Act, pitted the opposition against the government in a heated debate over whether supervised safe injection sites should be allowed to open in communities across Canada.

Here are three things you should know about the bill:

1. What does Bill C-2 seek to do?

The Respect for Communities Act, initially tabled by the Harper government in June, creates more onerous guidelines for obtaining essential exemptions under the Controlled Drugs and Substance Act, a requirement for new safe injection sites to open their doors. The exemption prevents individuals from facing drug possession charges at the sites.

The bill gives communities a louder voice in deciding whether a supervised injection site can open in a given neighbourhood. Critics say this provision will ensure the failure of a proposed supervised safe injection site, since there will almost always be some degree of opposition to a new site. The federal health minister, currently Rona Ambrose, has the sole discretion to decide whether a site can open.

2. What is a supervised safe injection site?

A supervised safe injection site is a place where drug addicts can go to take drugs under medical supervision. The site provides users with clean needles and access to psychologists, councillors, doctors, and nurses. Patients are expected to bring their own drugs.

Only one application for a supervised injection site has ever been approved by Health Canada. Insite, a Vancouver operation, was opened in 2003. It now attracts nearly 500,000 people every year.

Advocates, who include the NDP and many members of the medical community, say the sites help curb drug addiction, reduce disease transmission and make neighbouring communities safer. Research suggests that communities around a safe injection sites have fewer incidents of street drug dealing.

Critics, including the Conservative government, have voiced concern about supervised injection sites. Many believe the sites legitimize the use of illegal drugs, do not help curb drug abuse and can act as a meeting ground for drug dealers.

3. Why did the Conservatives propose Bill C-2?

Last June, then-Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq tabled Bill C-65. The bill died on the Order Paper when Parliament prorogued last year, and was reintroduced as Bill C-2 upon Parliament’s return.

The Respect for Communities Act was introduced following a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2011 that said Insite must remain open. The SCC case was launched by Pivot Legal Society after Insite’s application for renewal was rejected by Health Canada in the mid-2000s.

Canada’s top court eventually ruled in Insite’s favour, finding that closing the Vancouver site would violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The justices found that shutting down the program would be detrimental to the health and well-being of some of Canada’s most vulnerable citizens.

In its ruling, the SCC said the minister of health must exercise his or her discretion within “the constraints imposed by the law and the Charter, aiming to strike the appropriate balance between achieving public health and public safety.” Some Opposition MPs have argued that Bill C-2 shifts the balance in favour of communities, local law enforcement and community groups instead of the minister.